The present invention relates to a new variety of Verbena plant, which originated from the crossing of a Verbena hybrid variety called ‘T86-99-2’ (unpatented) as the female parent and ‘T85-99-2’ (unpatented) as the male parent.
The verbena is a very popular plant and is used for flower bedding and potting in the summer season. There are only a few varieties of Verbena plants which have a spreading growth habit, abundant branching, a large number of flowers in clusters and a high resistance to rain, heat, cold, and disease. Accordingly, this invention was aimed at obtaining a new variety having a decumbent and compact growth habit, many branches, a large number of flowers in clusters, high tolerance to heat, rain, drought and cold, and resistance to disease and pests combined with strong purple petal coloration.
The female parent ‘T86-99-2’ used in the crossing that produced ‘Suntapilabu’ is a strain of our breeding lines, having a decumbent growth habit. The peduncle is longer, and the spike diameter and the floret diameter are smaller, than those of ‘Suntapilabu’. The petal color of ‘T86-99-2’ is purplish white, while that of ‘Suntapilabu’ is purple.
The male parent ‘T85-99-2’ used in the crossing that produced ‘Suntapilabu’ is a strain of our breeding lines, having a decumbent growth habit. The stem length is longer, and the plant height is lower, than that of ‘Suntapilabu’. The petal color of ‘T85-99-2’ is light blue, which is lighter than that of ‘Suntapilabu’ (near R.H.S. N81B).
In March 1999, crossing of ‘T86-99-2’ as the female parent and ‘T85-99-2’ as the male parent was conducted at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga-ken, Japan. In June 1999, seedlings were obtained from that crossing. These seedlings were grown in pots in glasshouses and were evaluated. Five seedlings were selected in view of their growth habit and flower color in October 2000. Those seedlings were propagated by cutting and a trial was carried out by flower potting and bedding from May to October 2001. The botanical characteristics of those plants were then examined, using similar varieties ‘Sunmaref TP-L’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,121) and ‘Sunmaref TP-V’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,411) for comparison. One plant was selected and determined to be distinguishable from any other Verbena variety, whose existence is known to us, and to be uniform and stable in its characteristics. The new variety of Verbena plant was named ‘Suntapilabu’.
In the following description, the color-coding is in accordance with The Horticultural Colour Chart of The Royal Horticultural Society, London, England (R.H.S.).